Berkley, Virginia


Berkley was an incorporated town in Norfolk County, Virginia. Chartered by an Act of Assembly in 1890, the Town of Berkley was located directly across the Eastern Branch Elizabeth River from the City of Norfolk in the South Hampton Roads area.

History

In the 18th century, Berkley developed port facilities and a shipyard on the Elizabeth River across from Norfolk. In the 19th century, it was the rail terminus of the original Norfolk Southern Railway, a regional railroad extending 600 miles to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Both the Town of Berkley and Norfolk County are extinct as jurisdictions. Fearing annexation ambitions by its larger neighbor, the City of Norfolk, in the late 19th century, the town leaders petitioned the Virginia General Assembly to become an independent city, but the effort failed. On January 1, 1906, the Town of Berkley was annexed by the City of Norfolk, and is now considered a neighborhood of that city..
On 13 April 1922, the "negro belt" of the city suffered a large fire that destroyed two hundred homes. Press reports said that the fire began in a lumber mill and spread rapidly.
In the 21st century, the Berkley Bridge on I-264 links Berkley with the downtown area of Norfolk. It is one of a few drawbridges on the Interstate Highway System. Berkley also is the site of the juncture of the Downtown Tunnel and Interstate 464.

Berkley North Historic District

The Berkley North Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. It encompasses 255 contributing buildings in one of southeast Virginia's oldest and most diverse communities, now part of the City of Norfolk. It includes a variety of early-20th century commercial and residential architecture, some of it designed by the area's most important firms. Notable buildings include the Lycurgus Berkley House, Norfleet House, St. James Episcopal Church and adjacent chapel, Antioch Baptist church, Berkley Avenue Baptist Church, Merchants' and Planters' Bank, Seaboard Bank Building, former Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Mary Hardy MacArthur Memorial.

People from Berkley